If it seemed to you like the holiday season began a bit early this year, you’re not going crazy. According to this www.cnn.com article (http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/11/01/holiday.discounts.ap/index.html), many retailers began Black Friday-like sales a whole two weeks before Thanksgiving. Retailers’ sales and promotions have been in full swing for almost two whole weeks! And I have fallen into their ruse. I can’t wait for Christmas and feel like it should be a lot later in November than it really is. Most importantly, I want to buy buy buy Christmas presents! In previous years, I have been patient and haven’t even thought about purchasing presents until after Thanksgiving. This year, though, I have been so impatient and can’t wait to shop, mostly because of all of the sales retailers are promoting.
And yet, I have not bought any Christmas presents so far. My financial situation is holding me back. And this is the case, it seems, with many Americans this year. An article titled “Retailers Hope Shoppers Are Ready to Spend” in the New York Times from November 16, 2007, claims that “retailers are heading into the Thanksgiving weekend on edge, worried that consumers will keep a tight hold on their purse strings in the face of a shaky economic environment and lack of must-have products” (http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-blackfriday-preview.html?_r=1&oref=slogin).
How can we, as consumers, be smarter shoppers this year? Of course, we can take advantage of the sales on Black Friday. The website BlackFridayAds.com claims to be “your one stop source for all the best Black Friday Deals and information.” But if you are not too keen on shopping at 4:00 a.m., then you can take advantage of certain online stores’ free shipping. My previous blog discusses this further. Some retailers are even offering online only sales with free or discounted shipping. Several other websites help you create a list. If they don’t, using the “shopping cart” feature can allow you to make a list. Using a list when shopping and committing to only purchasing what is on your list, is another way to keep to a holiday shopping budget.
Good luck everyone, and may you have an enjoyable holiday shopping experience.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Friday, November 2, 2007
The promise of free shipping
Halloween has just passed and the U.S. is ready for the holiday season. I popped into a Rite Aid on the way home from work yesterday and the aisles are already filled with wrapping paper, plastic menorahs and Christmas tree lights. For weeks now, I have been receiving retailers’ first edition holiday catalogs,
The Pottery Barn catalog promises “free shipping on over 150 items!” I went to www.potterybarn.com to see if this was the case with online purchases. It is. Both the catalog and the website offer free shipping on the same items. Yet, when I went through the ordering process on www.potterybarn.com, I found that I was being charged $4.95 for a “shipping and process” charge. Interesting.
On the other hand, L.L. Bean shipping is completely free as I learned from the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/technology/08ecom.html). “Bean’s free-shipping offer comes with no minimum purchase requirements. That is in stark contrast to the strings-attached shipping offers used by more than 80 percent of online merchants last year, which left some consumers wondering about the exact meaning of ‘free.’”
Steve Fuller, L. L. Bean’s senior vice president for corporate marketing, says that the company may lose money by implementing this “free shipping” policy. The benefit, though, is that it attracts new customers, like myself. After reading the NY Times article, I visited www.llbean.com and bought something from L.L. Bean for the first time; I finished purchasing my brother a Christmas present for $29.50 and had to pay no shipping or process charge. Will I go back? Yes! Especially to buy more Christmas presents!
Other retailers, like www.oldnavy.com, charge a standard shipping amount for all purchases, and seem to continue to do so throughout the holiday season.
Www.endless.com, www.amazon.com’s online shoe store, claim that overnight shipping is -$5, meaning they will pay customers $5 for every order. Here is the exact policy:
Promotion extended! For a limited time, Overnight Shipping is *negative* $5. That's right, we'll take five dollars off your order for the privilege of shipping overnight to you. We are serious. Enjoy this special promotion while it lasts! Once the promotion is over, you can again enjoy our day-in and day-out offer of FREE Overnight Shipping. Negative five dollar shipping will appear in checkout as a five dollar deduction on your total order. If all items in an order are returned, you will be credited for the total price of the returned items less $5, not the item total before the $5 discount. For example, purchasing a shoe for $100 will result in a $95 order total (before tax if any); if you return it you will be credited $95 + tax.
Feeling that this was too good to be true, I decided to place an order and see for myself. True to its word, www.endless.com did in fact take off $5 from my purchase and did not charge me for shipping! Genius! I will definitely be visiting this website again in the near future.
What other website have free shipping? When I googled “free shipping” the following websites came up:
www.llbean.com
www.shoes.com
www.amazon.com
www.shopbop.com
www.zappos.com
www.PotteryBarnKids.com (interesting, considering my findings)
www.bluenile.com
www.bestbuy.com
Among others…
The Pottery Barn catalog promises “free shipping on over 150 items!” I went to www.potterybarn.com to see if this was the case with online purchases. It is. Both the catalog and the website offer free shipping on the same items. Yet, when I went through the ordering process on www.potterybarn.com, I found that I was being charged $4.95 for a “shipping and process” charge. Interesting.
On the other hand, L.L. Bean shipping is completely free as I learned from the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/technology/08ecom.html). “Bean’s free-shipping offer comes with no minimum purchase requirements. That is in stark contrast to the strings-attached shipping offers used by more than 80 percent of online merchants last year, which left some consumers wondering about the exact meaning of ‘free.’”
Steve Fuller, L. L. Bean’s senior vice president for corporate marketing, says that the company may lose money by implementing this “free shipping” policy. The benefit, though, is that it attracts new customers, like myself. After reading the NY Times article, I visited www.llbean.com and bought something from L.L. Bean for the first time; I finished purchasing my brother a Christmas present for $29.50 and had to pay no shipping or process charge. Will I go back? Yes! Especially to buy more Christmas presents!
Other retailers, like www.oldnavy.com, charge a standard shipping amount for all purchases, and seem to continue to do so throughout the holiday season.
Www.endless.com, www.amazon.com’s online shoe store, claim that overnight shipping is -$5, meaning they will pay customers $5 for every order. Here is the exact policy:
Promotion extended! For a limited time, Overnight Shipping is *negative* $5. That's right, we'll take five dollars off your order for the privilege of shipping overnight to you. We are serious. Enjoy this special promotion while it lasts! Once the promotion is over, you can again enjoy our day-in and day-out offer of FREE Overnight Shipping. Negative five dollar shipping will appear in checkout as a five dollar deduction on your total order. If all items in an order are returned, you will be credited for the total price of the returned items less $5, not the item total before the $5 discount. For example, purchasing a shoe for $100 will result in a $95 order total (before tax if any); if you return it you will be credited $95 + tax.
Feeling that this was too good to be true, I decided to place an order and see for myself. True to its word, www.endless.com did in fact take off $5 from my purchase and did not charge me for shipping! Genius! I will definitely be visiting this website again in the near future.
What other website have free shipping? When I googled “free shipping” the following websites came up:
www.llbean.com
www.shoes.com
www.amazon.com
www.shopbop.com
www.zappos.com
www.PotteryBarnKids.com (interesting, considering my findings)
www.bluenile.com
www.bestbuy.com
Among others…
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